Cool Energy wins DOE grant for prototype

BOULDER – Cool Energy Inc. received a $1 million Phase II Small Business Innovation Research grant from the Department of Energy to build and test its Stirling engine prototype, called the GeoHeart Engine, to generate electricity from heat recovered from liquids at oil and gas wells.

Sam Weaver, chief executive of Boulder-based Cool Energy, said the technology provides an opportunity for electricity cost-savings and emissions reductions in oil and gas fields.

The GeoHeart Engine system will convert heat from liquids extracted from the ground, according to the company. Weaver said the heat can be converted into electricity that can be used onsite to offset the power needed for the operation of the wells, or sold to a local utility and added to its power grid. The conversion will prevent some of the carbon emissions generated by the wells.

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Most of the wells with usable temperatures (100 to 200 degrees Celsius) are in Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma, Wyoming and California.

“If widely deployed, our power-generation technology could replace up to 300 fossil-fuel power plants,” Weaver said.”

The estimated market for power generation using a GeoHeart Engine system is $500 million to $800 million in the United States, according to a Cool Energy press release.